Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/174

148 poor girl had fainted away in the chair where she sat, evidently from sheer hunger and  fatigue. Van der Werf hastened to a closet, took out a bottle, and forced some cordial between her set teeth. As he chafed her cold hands he murmured:

“Poor, poor little girl! Thou hast borne thy share of this cursed trouble nobly and  well—that I know from De Witt himself. Thou shalt have every comfort and help that I can render thee!” Jacqueline soon returned to consciousness, but the burgomaster  would not yet allow her to leave, and insisted  that she drink another glass of the revivifying, cordial. When she was quite herself again, he sent her back to Belfry Lane with a  large basket of food from his own larder,  which he had despatched a soldier to procure.

“It is not much,” he apologized, “for we are hard put to it ourselves for sustenance  now. But it is at least something I can do for so faithful a helper. See that thou dost